In the construction of artificial Christmas trees, one of the convention techniques is to provide a central pole supported vertically by a suitable mounting stand. A series of sleeves is received over the central pole to provide for the mounting of artificial branches, and spacing between levels of branches.
The branch structure for many of the artificial tree designs includes a wire element having a short, generally vertical mounting section and which is bent at an angle to provide a radially outwardly and slightly upwardly extending branch arm or limb portion that mounts the artificial needles, and in some cases, subsidiary branching. Branch elements for the lower portion of the tree are, of course, of a relatively substantial length, with the length of branches at successively higher levels becoming progressively shorter to provide the traditional conical Christmas tree configuration.
Typically, the mounting sleeves for the branch structure are provided with a series of radially spaced vertical bores, to receive the vertical mounting portions of the branch wires. In addition, the inner limb portions of the branch wires may be received in radially spaced, upwardly inclined grooves or channels, which serve both to radially orient the branches and to provide additional support to the inner portions thereof.
Because artificial trees are intended to be reused, year after year, provision is usually made for removal of the individual branches from their mounting sockets, to enable the components of the tree to be packed away in a conveniently small space. In the most common forms of artificial Christmas trees, the disassembly/reassembly operation can involve considerable time, not only because of the time required to assemble a relatively large number of branches into their respective mounting sleeve elements, but also because the branches are of different sizes and must be assembled at the proper level on the tree. Efforts have been made, of course, to construct artificial Christmas trees to have a folding branch structure so that, ideally, putting away of the artificial tree for the next season can be accomplished by simply folding the branches upwardly, close in to the central pole. Examples of prior attempts to construct such folding trees are represented by the Abramson U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,435, the Hermanson U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,349 and the Wang U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,421. The structures of these representative patents, while presumably serving the basic purpose of providing a foldable structure, all require the use of special, non-standard branch constructions, so that special branch-making machinery is required to carry out these designs. That requirement impacts very negatively on the economics of the production and marketing of trees of this type.
In accordance with the present invention, a novel and improved structural arrangement is provided for artificial Christmas trees and the like, which provides for permanently or semipermanently assembled branches which fold upwardly for storage, yet which accommodates the use of conventionally manufactured bent wire branch elements, produced by conventional, existing machinery. The construction of the invention thus enables, full utilization to be made of the significant installed base of branch-making machinery.
In accordance with a more specific aspect of the present invention, a foldable branch mounting arrangement is provided which includes a branch-mounting sleeve formed with -5 a plurality of radially oriented branch receiving slots and further includes special branch-receiving adapter elements arranged to be pivotably mounted by the sleeve. The adapters and sleeve are of molded plastic construction, and the adapters are specially constructed to receive the base portions of conventionally configured bent wire branches.
In accordance with the invention, the branch-holding adapter is arranged to be assembled with a branch element while separate and independent from the mounting sleeve. After joining the branch to the adapter, the adapter is inserted in one of the branch-receiving slots of a mounting sleeve and secured therein for pivoting movement. The geometry of the adapter is such as to provide substantial support for the branch in its normal position, while allowing upward pivoting of the branch for storage of the tree between seasons.
To particular advantage, each of the branch-receiving radial slots of the branch mounting sleeve is provided with a horizontal pivot bar. The adapters are provided with open-sided bores for the reception of such pivot bars, to provide for the support and pivoted mounting of the branches and their adapters. A snap-in assembly is accommodated by this design, so that the parts may be easily assembled in the first instance but will remain permanently assembled unless there is a special reason for disassembly.
For a better understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, and to the accompanying drawing.